


La Petite Sirène

by QueenPotatos



Category: Free!
Genre: Interspecies Romance, It's kind of a fairy tale, M/M, Other, Please read the warning, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 03:27:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2836343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin saved Haruka's life when they were both children. They have a lot in common, and could become very good friends, but there's a single problem.<br/>Rin is a mermaid, and he is not supposed to be seen by humans.<br/>Tragic Mermaid AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	La Petite Sirène

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ewagan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewagan/gifts).



> Happy RinHaru Xmas event everyone !  
> I know we're supposed to celebrate and all, but not right now. This fic is kind of sad. It's also kind of long - it's totally my kind of fic hahaha.  
> The prompt was just perfect I really liked it, so much that I wrote 48 pages. I hope you will like it.  
> Thanks ellerean who was patient enough to beta me without shouting at me too much.

 

 

 

Humanity's existence is often punctuated by more or less existential questionings that keep them from sleeping at night. Things like, 'What is the purpose of living? What is fire truly made of? Are there colors our eyes can't see?'

 

Why is the water of seas and oceans salty when it comes out of the springs salt free?

 

Of course there are stories, told to young children before they fall asleep, about forgotten salt mills resting in the depths of the oceans; but these stories are fake. In truth, there are indeed hidden treasures, unknown to mankind that lie in the dark waters; but it's nothing like what the men of our times could have ever imagined. In olden days the truth had been known, centuries ago, when pirates were still the unquestionable kings of the seas; but if you look at your children's books now the old truth is disguised into what today's society calls fairy tales, fantastic stories or—even worse—hokum.

 

That's why this story won't start with a calligraphic 'Once Upon a Time' as it probably should.

 

Because this story is an old legacy from the past that we should all know, and remember, and pass on to the next generation, for this love story never to die.

 

 

 

* * *

 

**~~ . Part One : The mermaid's breakout - year 1668 ~~**

 

* * *

**.**

 

Our story took place during the 17th century in the Caribbean's seas, at a time where they were ruled by England's monarchy. King Charles the Second owned half of the territories known to Mankind but not all of what existed, because just under the sea deep, deep down, in a place where only unfortunate drowned sailors ever went, there was an entire other world that people nowadays will call fantastic, impossible, nay unreal. It was another kind of Kingdom ruled by a Queen, by people of the seas. People that our generation learn to call mermaids.

 

They were half fishes and half humans. They had been there way before fire was born from the hands of our ancestors, and will survive our loss. They lived under water, and men lived above, and so never did our two species meet apart from accident, or too much curious adventurers coming from both sides.

 

The truth I want to share with you starts with one of those curious individual, who lived under the sea, and longed for nothing more than to see the world from the other side of the gleaming surface.

 

(For the truth to happen of course, we need two curious souls, but we'll get on the second one later on.)

 

The young mermaid had been named Rin by his mother, the Queen of the Oceans. Rin was the joy of the Kingdom; his hair was red like no other and his smile, bright and endless on his features, was enough to turn every sad fish in a cheering mood in the blink of an eye. Rin loved to sing, and dance, to challenge other mermaids and in fact, any other sea creatures into speed competitions, because no one was ever able to beat him - was it because he was a Prince or because he was the fastest, the truth never gave us the answer. But Rin was also a curious mermaid and one baneful day, one of his courses brought him closer to men than he ever should have been.

 

It happened quickly, too quickly; as Rin was swimming away from his opponent he saw from his spot the white, wavering gleam of the moon reflecting on the water. He had heard of it only in stories, and so he wanted nothing more than to see it with his eyes, to witness the beauty of the bright star that enlightened the surface of his endless home every night.

 

He broke the surface, and the most important rule of his people at the same time. He had come into contact with the human's world.

 

Rin looked, hypnotized, at the round and white light coming from what should be the sky, and in the meanwhile he saw for the very first time tons and tons of little moons spotting the dark surface under which humans lived. He didn't know they were called stars until he was told by Haruka years after that. That day, Rin was just a twelve year old mermaid and he didn't know what was ahead of him.

 

There was another light coming from his side. But that light was not calm and blue; it was warm, and red, and somehow it ached.

 

Two large forms were floating on the water and one was being attacked. What Rin saw that day was the fire and the flames coming out of the defeated's ship but he didn't know then what fire was, and it scared and fascinated him at the same time.

 

He swam closer to the naval battle that was still occurring under his innocent eyes. Sure, under the sea there were conflicts and deaths, sometimes; but Rin was too young to be bothered by such horror, and being the Queen's son he was lucky enough to avoid tragedies like these due to the respect his social ranks gave him.

 

As he got closer to the warm light, he saw a boy floating on the surface. His lips were blue and his eyes were closed. Rin swam closer and saw that the form did not have a tail. Instead it had thin ones; it's probably what Sousuke called a leg. Well, the body got two, and so Rin figured that in arm’s reach a human little boy was floating ahead of him.

 

It was the very first time that Rin had seen one. He had never felt that much excitement in his whole life. Expect from the lack of tail, they were not that different, were they?

 

The little mermaid started to poke on the unresponsive little boy's shoulder, and was kind of disappointed to gain no response. He punched him harder and then patted his face and side. There was still no answer; the boy was deeply asleep.

 

How troublesome...

 

Rin swam away from the immobile form and looked for another one, a funnier one. If there was one floating in the middle of the sea then, some others from the little boy's tribe most be following. They might even come from the two dark and red forms floating on the water.

 

The closer he got to the naval battle, the more debris he found on his way. Rectangular forms, oval ones, tons of object and thin materials that looked like the robe of a manta. Rin fell on another human five minutes only after he started looking.

 

His face was in the water. The water around the man was warmer than before, and also even with the lack of light, it was assuredly darker. And it smelt of iron and sour.

 

"Don't touch it!"

 

Rin turned his head toward the place where the voice came from, under the surface. He saw the silky surface being distorted and then, after a few bubbles came out in the air, a baby whale shark appeared in the human part of the world.

 

"But why?" Rin whined at the incomer.

 

"It's blood." The whale shark told him. Rin's eyes widened and rested back on the human body, lifeless, in front of him. "This human is dead." The baby whale shark added.

 

"Dead you said?"

 

The whale shark nodded. "Mom smelt the blood from miles away. She swam closer to get us some meat and she told me to follow her. It's a chance I saw you before she did. She could have told your mother! You could have been punished!"

 

"Why are they dead?"

 

The baby whale shark was Rin's best friend from the day he was born. His name was Sousuke; he had been enchanted by Rin's mother to stay a baby as long as he wanted to stay with Rin and swam with him everyday.

 

"See those two vessels?" Sousuke said.

 

"' _Vessels'_ you said?"

 

Sousuke sighed. "These two big things! The things humans use to swim on top of the sea."

 

Rin's eyes fell on the boats again. "Oh, so these are 'vessels' mom told me about."

 

Suddenly the two best friends could hear a loud noise, and someone cried. Red light gushed out in the air. The naval battle was still occurring.

 

"That's why they're dead." Sousuke went on. "Human are dangerous. They kill their own people, they kill fishes and whales just for fun. Those vessels, you know how my mom calls them? _‘The Death's shadows.’_ "

 

They were the only things Rin had ever seen from the humans' world; large shadows, moving on the sea, portentous of death. That's what the Queen of the Oceans told her children before they could ever leave their starfish cradles. Rin knew all that, he knew that breaking the water's surface was forbidden and yet, his mother's warnings had done nothing but nourished the curiosity of his pure and child's heart for the other species.

 

"Mom is coming." Sousuke murmured. "You should hide. I'll keep her busy, so use that time wisely for once."

 

The baby whale shark disappeared as fast as he had come out of the surface. The puddle of blood coming from the dead human's body had almost reached Rin; panicked, the little mermaid swam under the surface far away from the sight, from the fire and the battle occurring just a couple of meters away. He emerged a little bit further near a rock and leaned his elbow on its surface as he stared up, still mesmerized by the fire brighter than the moon he cherished so dearly, and wondered how a civilization that could create such a pretty thing could be so dangerous and deadly.

 

The young boy's body floated soundlessly toward Rin. Its arm collided with the mermaid's waist; it made him jump in surprise, and the water around him lapped. Rin stilled; his gill remained immobile as he stared at the form he realized he already knew.

 

"Hey," Rin poked the little boy again. "Are you dead?"

 

The boy did not answer.

 

"There is no blood around you, isn't it?" Rin went on. "So you're probably not dead."

 

Rin's eyes left the battle in front of him for the human's body, still unmoving and floating just next to him. His lips were now purple, and his skin very white. The boy looked like some children's toys that Rin had found countless time on wrecks.

 

"I have to go back home. Mom is going to be very angry if she learns that I was there. Do you have a place like that? Do humans have homes and moms?"

 

Rin waited, but the boy remained as silent as before.

 

"Jeez. You're so annoying. Can you even hear me?"

 

"Probably not."

 

Rin turned around; once more Sousuke appeared out of nowhere, looking pretty pissed.

 

"I told you to leave the place. I can't believe you're staying there with a human." He groaned.

 

"And that's what I was about to do before you came up!" Rin retorted. "Plus, humans are uninteresting. This one isn't even moving."

 

"Rin...this human is dying."

 

"Hm!? But..." Rin grasped the boy's arm. "Look! There is no blood around him! He can't be dead."

 

"There is a lot of different way to die for a human." Sousuke explained. "I think this one is just too cold though. That's why his lips are so dark."

 

Rin smirked, his gills quivered. "You seem to know a lot about humans."

 

"Rin. I eat humans. Of course I know about them. Can I...?"

 

The shark eyed the little boy, and Rin saw the hunger in him.

 

"No." He answered, to the baby whale shark's deception. "You said he's just cold? My mom always hugs me when I'm cold."

 

"But it's not the same. Humans don't live in water, they live on the ground, or earth."

 

"So you say that he needs the warmth from earth and not from me?"

 

"I say that he needs to be given back to where he belongs. Or in my stomach; but that's for you to choose."

 

The two best friends looked around. No one would have ever imagined that they had swum so far from their lands. The two vessels were far away, but there was a band of land covered with white sand not even a couple of miles ahead. Rin brought the human there, his arms curled around the boy's waist. Delicately he put his back on the sand. The boy's thin tails were still in the water, and so Rin got out of the ocean and crawled on the beach, his own scarlet tail scratching on the sand grains.

 

"What are you doing?" Sousuke whispered when he finally reached him. Rin was indeed way faster than him, even with another body to carry.

 

"The ground is warmer. He is going to keep being cold if his legs stay in the water."

 

"But you're going to burn your tail. Your scales won't shine as brightly as usual if you stay too much on human's ground."

 

"I know. I'm not stupid, Sousuke; but he's going to die if I leave him there."

 

With difficulty Rin eventually managed to pull the human entirely out of the cold water. He tried to ignore the ache transfixing his tail; his upper body fell on the boy's, his head on the clothed chest, and that's only then that Rin realized he had something more in common with the human race.

 

There was a beating heart under the white shirt.

 

"So you're really alive." Rin breathed. His breath on the cold skin made the boy shiver. His lips were now back to their initial blue color. Rin stayed there, listening to the regular heartbeat bumping on his ears, for quite a while, and forgot about the sand burning his scales.

 

Suddenly it got faster.

 

And the boy started to cough.

 

Some water escaped his lips and Rin gasped, and got out of the boy's lap.

 

He opened his eyes.

 

They were so blue.

 

Rin never was able to forget about them.

 

 

* * *

 

**~~  Part two : The impossible tale - year 1678 ~~**

 

* * *

  **.**

 

To progress a little further into the truth we need to jump ten years later in the city of Port Royal. There we will find our second dreamer, the other curious young sailor who had, since he was born, a kind of morbid attraction for the Ocean and water. His name was Haruka. He was sailing with his very best friend Makoto, whose father owned the boat they were in. The young man's eyes were closed, but he was not sleeping. Haruka was remembering something, a detail, a vivid image that sometimes popped into his mind when he was drifting away as the waves stroke him smoothly into oblivion.

 

He remembered the day his family was killed. They had all drowned, but he had floated, and had been saved by a stranger. A young girl with a bright and shiny fishy tail.

 

"Haru, I told you it was just a dream." Makoto kept on telling him, and told him again that day as Haruka woke up and looked blankly at the water from his spot. "Your brain was lacking oxygen, you had imagined it."

 

"It was real. I saw her."

 

"But...Haru, it can't be real."

 

But Haruka was sure he had seen his savior return into the ocean after he had woken up, safe and sound, feeling the wet sand under his palm and the harshness of the little girl's tail brushing past his bare legs. Her upper body was a human one but she had no legs, the rest of her body from her waist to her missing toes was made the same way as a bright red fish was. Never did Haruka think it was something he had made up entirely. The face he had seen was not something he could have imagined on his own as well. It was unique, and fragile, and her eyes were so bright and red like rubies.

 

"How do you explain that you find me alive on that beach then?" Haruka fought back, not willing to give up. "You told me that yourself. No one came near the place before you found me. And the vessel drowned too far away for a little boy like me to have swum the distance on his own."

 

"I never said that no one helped you." Makoto sighed, and pulled the net out of the sea. "I just said that...hey, there's still that small seahorse trapped in the net. What should we do? Ren and Ran would love it but dad would certainly want me to sell it to buy them new clothes..."

 

"Put it back in water." Haruka told him. "Seahorses belong to the ocean. Living beings should stay in their rightful place."

 

Makoto turned his head away. "You're the one to talk..." He muttered.

 

Haruka sent him a dark eye, and as if his next move's only purpose was to annoy his best friend or to prove him wrong, he took off his clothes in a smooth movement and jumped into the Ocean.

 

Makoto watched Haruka swim far from their boat. "You should apply your own rules to yourself." He breathed, even if he knew he could not be heard. "The Ocean is not the place where you belong, Haru."

 

After all, Makoto Tachibana had already tried, in vain, to understand his friend's mind and obsession with the ocean and what supposedly lived under. To him, as far as he could remember Haruka was a man walking along the beach with one foot always soaking in water. He had never been able to find his rightful place on earth but he could not live in water as well. That's probably why he - and by saying 'he', you should understand 'they', because Makoto could not leave him alone - spent most of their time on water, on boats more precisely.

 

Speaking of boats, a large and immense vessel was sailing to the port. Its black flag was floating in the air.

 

"Pirates." Makoto swore. "Haru, come back quickly."

 

But Haruka was not listening, instead he was desperately trying to establish a kind of communication with a sea otter that was hitting a nut on its belly.

 

"Haru..." Makoto groaned. "Come back on board before you got us into trouble."

 

"It wants the seahorse back."

 

"What?!"

 

Haruka got closer to their makeshift craft, the sea otter following him enthusiastically. His hand plunged into the net and the little seahorse, not bigger than the young man's palm, was back in the water only a few seconds after. The sea otter was now hitting on the poor creature's head, if it could be called that way. The birth of a smile appeared on Haruka's features for a brief instant.

 

"How did you know?" Makoto asked, as he helped Haruka to get back on the boat.

 

"I recognized it. It was there the last time we caught the seahorse, remember?"

 

Makoto didn't, but that, and as for what on earth a sea otter was doing here, did not really matter.

 

"It must be his friend."

 

The sea otter was jumping and waving at the two of them before disappearing into the ocean. On the other hand, the seahorse, in Makoto's opinion, looked kind of panicked at the animal's disappearance. Seconds later, it was eaten by a bigger grey fish. Makoto's face twitched.

 

"All that for that...oh well, after all the ocean is a dangerous place, even more dangerous for those which live under it than for the human race. What do you think about— Haru what are you doing?"

 

As soon as his skin had had time to dry, Haruka was back in water, chasing the grey fish which had eaten the poor seahorse.

 

"Haru, leave that fish alone! It's only natural, big fishes eat smaller fishes, it's the cycle of-"

 

"It's not a fish." Haruka said in the distance, but Makoto could not hear him. He took his paddle and did his best to follow his friend in his heated and improbable race, even if he could not understand the purpose of Haruka's sudden burst of craziness.

 

"It was there too." Haruka went on, as Makoto sailed behind him. "It was there the day I was saved. It was with the girl."

 

Haruka plunged, and Makoto lost sight of him. He was about to jump as well to drag him back into common sense and, more pragmatically, on solid ground when his friend's black hair came back into sight again.

 

"I need to go deeper." He murmured to himself and then, Haruka disappeared again.

 

Haruka had always been brilliant when it concerned water. Swimming, fishing, holding his breath, sailing; all of those things had always appeared awkwardly familiar to him. His reputation had a lot to do with the miracle of his survival of course, but Haruka knew that his ability had nothing to do with that.

 

That night he had seen a face enlightened by the moonlight. When his eyes had met hers, he remembered he had heard a gasp, and then the girl was crawling to the ocean with a big grey fish waiting for her. It was the very same one. He knew he couldn't be wrong. As soon as he had seen it his heart had started to race like nothing he had known before. It was the fish, and it was going to take him to the girl who had saved him ten years ago.

 

How did he not forget about her, after all this time, he didn't even know. The brightness of the girl's eyes was probably playing a big role that's for sure, but Haruka knew he was trying to lure himself. Because there was only one thing that mattered to him, and this thing was that the girl owned a tail.

 

And Haruka wanted that tail.

 

He wanted to be the same as her and if he had to swim into the depth of the ocean, to risk his neck to know how he could have one, then yes he would do anything he could. That's the thought which forbade him to forget about the girl.

 

Under the Ocean there was a lot of creatures and plants Haruka had never seen before. He chased after his prey, before he lost track of the grey fish, which had disappeared in a hole where his human body could not fit. Haruka broke the surface of water and turned around, pleased but not surprised to see that Makoto was still there following him with their boat.

 

"You're crazy." The gentle man told him, offering him his hand once more.

 

"...Maybe." He just said back.

 

 

 

 

An hour later their feet were walking on paved road, the ones of Port Royal, leading to Goro's Tavern. The place was ugly and crumbling, there were rats and scorpions everywhere, but Makoto and Haruka did not mind. After all, the rum was cheap, and it was all that really mattered.

 

"You're still chasing after that girl, hn?" The tavern's owner said in the middle of the usual racket, as he poured them some drinks. "But don't make that kind of face Makoto, it's only natural for a young man like our Haruka to chase after his dream, all the more so if it's for a girl."

 

"It's a fish." Makoto corrected him as he tasted his drink with his lips.

 

"No, it's a girl." Haruka said, his glass now empty. "A girl with a tail."

 

"It does not exist."

 

"I told you I saw her just the way I see you now."

 

"Then you must have dreamed it!"

 

"Or," A voice said, interrupting their little fight, "Then it must be a mermaid."

 

The voice had come from the table just behind them. There, a couple of men wearing old rags were sitting with their glasses empty, surrounding a single man dressed with an eccentric outfit and a very imposing hat. At his right side there was someone Haruka recognized. The blond short guy came from his neighborhood, his name was Nagisa if he remembered correctly, and he had left the place a couple of years ago to join a group of 'very cool men' on a 'very cool boat' to do 'very cool things!'

 

(Long story short, he had joined a gang of Pirates to escape from his sisters' fury.)

 

The man with the hat was called Rainbow Bread and was a very well known pirate in the Caribbean's. He was young, and kind of special, but he was the very best to steal and find old treasures that had one unique characteristic: They were all considered the most beautiful pieces of jewels the world had ever known. The most treasured of his possession was undeniably his vessel, which he had named Calipso. His bow was magnificently decorated with a sculpture made with pink marble, representing the torso of a woman with long hair, facing the Ocean, her arms supporting the deck's wooden frame.

 

What Haruka didn't know at that time was that it was, in fact, not a woman; but a mermaid. Only those who knew where to lend their gaze could ever find out about the scales the woman wore just under her belly. Rainbow Bread was a very scrupulous man, and no detail ever escaped his purple eyes. He had heard of the truth way before it was known by many, and thus he had sought in his chase for treasure and jewelry the sight of another species, a new civilization, the one of the people who lived under the sea.

 

"Did your savior have three lines on each side of its neck, raw and matching the color of its tail, allowing it to breath?" The Captain said.

 

"...Yes, she had."

 

"Haru!" Makoto exclaimed. "You shouldn't- it's - it's Rainbow Bread we shouldn't-"

 

"Did your savior have red eyes, the same as rubies, prettier than the one resting on the British's crown?"

 

"Please! It's a pirate." Makoto said, trying to call back to reason his best friend who was paying a great deal of attention to the Captain. "Haru we're going to be in trouble. We should just-"

 

"Let him finish, for the Kraken's sake!" Goro said then, and dragged the tall man away from his best friend. Haruka was now left alone, and without anyone at his side to forbid him to fly freely - or to fall, but that's for you to choose, in hindsight of what will inevitably happen to our second curious protagonist - the young man saw the world with new eyes, and new perspective appeared to him brighter than ever.

 

At that very moment Haruka saw himself swimming along the other sea people, a tail in place of his legs.

 

"...How do you know?"

 

It only took a wide smile and a very loud, bright and awkward laughter from the great pirate to charm Haruka's mind; and only a day after the young man was sailing on Calipso, in the very middle of the Caribbean's' sea.

 

Makoto had stayed on the pier on day the first time his friend sailed on the Calipso. The Haruka he knew never really returned from this trip.

 

"It must be the Prince of the Ocean you saw that day." Rainbow Bread told him the first day they sailed. "According to my research he is used to break the surface. I often see his red tail flirting with the shell of my dear Calipso. If you really want to, I can lead you to the place I spotted him last time."

 

 

 

Haruka saw Rin again only three days after that. Just like he had said, Rainbow Bread brought him just to the place where the mermaid usually swam. The blood-colored scales glittered under the surface. It only lasted an instant before Haruka lost the sight, and he thought it was lost forever until the silhouette of a sea otter chatting with a very tiny seahorse tickled his senses. He did not think. His body moved on its own.

 

The second after that Haruka jumped from Calipso to the cold water. His skin burned, his eyes opened to a new world and lent on the redhead, moving his fantastic tail just in front of him.

 

He stopped, mesmerized by what he was seeing, and forgot for a moment that he was a simple human. Haruka forgot how to breathe and instead he swam, his leg mimicking the moments of the other's tail and reached him.

 

Haruka touched the mermaid's arm and the mermaid, surprised, turned around and looked at his blue eyes.

 

The mermaid gasped.

 

Haruka felt its skin under his palm, and the harshness of the scattered scales resting there. It was the very same face, the same flaming gaze and shining tail; the mermaid had the very same reaction it had had in the past. Its expression Haruka could read on its feature was identical and then, for the very first time, Haruka remembered everything from the night his parents had died.

 

He gasped as well, but he was not a mermaid. Cold water entered his lung and he was forced to gain the surface sooner than his wish would have permitted him to. Nagisa and another pirate were on a little boat ready to rescue him, but Haruka plunged underwater again after he got his breath back.

 

But the mermaid was gone.

 

 

 

"I was wrong," Haruka said when they came back from their trip, a week after the incident, the hold full of gold and treasures Rainbow Bread had found on a deserted Island. He eventually waited for Makoto to pay attention to his words, before adding, his tone provocative, "It's not a girl."

 

Makoto raised his head.

 

"It's a boy." He said. His eyes were sparkling. 

 

 

 

 

You'd agree with me, the first times Rin and Haruka met weren't of the greatest. Both times it had last only a second, seconds separated by ten years of absence, but during when the two boys had never been able to stop thinking about each other, even unconsciously.

 

And after their second meeting it was clear, for both of them, that they would definitely see each other again. Because there was no other choice left. 

 

 

 

On the underground sea Rin was panicking. No human was supposed to see them. Not only had he broken the most important rule of his people, but he had put everyone in danger. Their tranquility was now threatened by a single human. And, what human…

 

Rin had never been able to forget about the human's eyes. They were of a shade of blue he had never seen before under the Ocean's surface.

 

When he came back home, eventually, with Sousuke and his friends following him like his shadow, his heart was beating faster than his body could remember.

 

"I told you it was dangerous!" Sousuke groaned; bubbles came out of his maw. "You should have stopped flirting with the human's world long ago. But you never listen!"

 

"Shut up."

 

"Let him breathe Sousuke-sempai!" The Otter said.

 

"What are you still doing here?" The baby whale shark asked aggressively. "Since when can sea otters breathe under water?"

 

"I’m just here to give you some information! This human is not bad!" The otter said, his face red and his arms moving in every direction. "He saved little Nitori from the nets. Twice!"

 

The seahorse floating next to his mammal's friend nodded vigorously.

 

"…And? A human is still a human." Sousuke retorted. "It's not because he freed Nitori that he makes up for all the evil things the humans did to us." His black eyes turned back to Rin. "What did you think? You're the fastest creature living in the Ocean, how could a mere human catch up with you so easily?"

 

"I don't know." Rin said. "I honestly don't know. I guess he is just really fast."

 

"Liar. You let him reach you."

 

"I didn't! I really don't know what happen." Rin turned around, his face showing slight signs of panic. "Look, I didn't know it was him until I saw his eyes."

 

" _'Him'?_ What do you mean by that?" 

 

Rin told him, and then, the two best friends stopped talking to each other for a while - almost a year in human time. After this little incident Sousuke spread the news about the unfortunate encounter, and it did not escape from the Queen's omniscient ears. Rin was grounded. The freedom he had had since his birth was now a forbidden treasure to him; like a bird without his wings the young Prince could not use his tail to escape from his world and to travel the secret ground of the Ocean's floor. It would take another year for the two curious souls to have another and decent meeting.

 

 

 

This, what I told you so far, was just the first steps, the childhood and beginning of adolescence of this story. For it to really make sense and to start properly, for action to happen and tragedy to occur, the truth like in any other stories of this kind, needs a lie.

 

It did not come from a villain. Because in the truth there is no real villain or hero. There are just people with only their interests in mind, ignoring everything about the world and the repercussion of their small, very small lies and secrets they unconsciously keep to themselves. 

 

 

 

"Rainbow Bread." A voice said in the darkness of the cave, "You told me that if I stayed a whole year with you and helped you in your activities, you would tell me everything you know about the merpeople."

 

Rainbow Bread put his glass of hot apple juice on the barrel separating the two men.

 

"I did. And I always honor my promise, Haruka."

 

The old fisherman narrowed his eyes, looking for a clue or a sign that would betrayed the Captain's honesty.

 

"Fine. Then, I'm reading to listen to what you have to say."

 

The Captain readjusted his hat on his head, caressing the fine peacock feather embellishing it.

 

"What if I told you that," he started, having all of Haruka's attention, "I know how a human can turn into a people of the sea?"

 

And this, my friend, is the lie that starts it all.

 

 

* * *

 

**~~  Part Three : Learning. Year 1671~~**

 

* * *

**.**

 

 

It took him a whole year to get the information he yearned for, and another year to get all the preparation done.

 

Haruka had traveled the Ocean back and forth, up and down, deep down, and at that moment of our story he thought he knew exactly where the people of the sea lived. With the help of Makoto and his parents he had built a house on piles which seemed to float on water. The construction took him another year.

 

Three years after their last meeting Haruka could still feel the harshness of the mermaid's skin under his fingertips. They were trembling on the surface of water, trembling with the excitement of knowing that his wait would eventually come to an end soon, very soon.

 

Tomorrow he would jump on water. He would swim deeper than ever and find the mermaid with the red tail. And then he would-

 

"Haru," Makoto called him out of his reverie, and his hands stopped shaking. "Mackerel is ready."

 

"I'm coming."

 

They ate in silence, the two of them alone. Makoto's boat was moored to Haruka's house; he came here every day and left, every night, worried sick about his friend and his more than original object of obsession.

 

"I'm going tomorrow." Haruka told him as they drank their tea under the stars.

 

"Are you sure about that?"

 

"Yes."

 

Makoto took a slip. He couldn't find anything to say anyway, to make his friend change his mind.

 

"You'll be careful, right? You don't know what kind of things are waiting for you there…"

 

"I know. You don't need to tell me." Haruka stood up and took both of their empty cups away. "But, thank you for your concern. Thank you for caring."

 

He watched his friend's boat disappearing from the view, the image getting blurred by the seconds passing by. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes to hours, and then night became dawn before Haruka could blink an eye.

 

Just as planned, Haruka sat on the wooden planks and took a peach out of his pocket. He waited until the sun was midway up in the sky, and then he could see coming towards him a moving form, causing backwashes on the calm water.

 

The sea otter was swimming faster than Haruka remembered. It was also kind of bigger. Time ran for everyone after all, even if not at the same speed.

 

"Hey," Haruka said when the animal stopped just in front of him, his eyes pleading for food. "What's your name?"

 

The otter looked utterly confused for a second, and eyed Haruka as if he was a kind of mental fish, before trying to take the fruit away.

 

"Nh nh, tell me your name first." Haruka said as he put the fruit away. "Is it Momo? Are you the seahorse's friend?"

 

The otter's paw stopped in midair. It clucked, and then tilted its head on his right side.

 

"Yes, I know Nitori." Haruka said. The animal looked confused. "I can hear you. I can understand you."

 

"How is it possible?" Momotarou said to his own, still not believing that a mere human could understand what he could say.

 

"I have no idea. Here." Haruka gave him the peach. "Eat it, and then you'll lead me to your friend."

 

The otter chocked. "It's impossible. _He_ 's going to eat me if I do so."

 

"Who? The baby whale shark?"

 

Momo nodded, and took another bite. "His name is Sousuke. He's Rin's best friend, since his birth, and he never leaves his side. Especially since you've followed him under the…"

 

The otter stopped, because the human in front of him had stopped listening.

 

"…Rin you said? His name is Rin? The prince of the Ocean wearing a red tail? The one who saved me, when I was only a child?"

 

The otter thought at that moment that he had talked too much. But then, he saw something in the human's eyes, something sparkling, something that took all of his doubt away.

 

"Come." He said. "I don't know who you are, but you saved Nitori twice and it meant a lot to me, and to Rin as well. I don't know who you are to him…or who he is to you, but you seem to care."

 

"I do." Haruka said, "I care a lot. He saved my life."

 

"Is it just that simple?" Momo asked, mindlessly. The question wasn't, in fact, that innocent, not in Haruka's ears in any case; the blue gaze hardened on the small animal, and then the otter chose to close his mouth.

 

"After all, I'm just a sea otter." He said. "It's not my business and I'm sure I won't be able to understand a human's motivation, at least as soon as it does not concern food or sloth."

 

Momotarou led Haruka towards a spot lost in the vastness of the Ocean. They swam for a minute or two and then, he abruptly came to a halt.

 

"I can swim eight minutes under water." The otter told him. "Nitori will take over after that. He likes you. He likes Rin too, a lot, and Rin…well, I think Rin would want to meet you."

 

"I can only stay five." Haruka told him, his eyes falling on the gleaming surface between him and the animal.

 

"Oh, right, I forgot that you're human after all. Shall we go?"

 

Haruka hadn't thought that saying yes implied that he was more than likely to die of asphyxia. Carelessly, he nodded.

 

"I'm ready." Haruka said.

 

And his form disappeared underwater. 

 

 

 

Rin felt that there was something different about the water as soon as Haruka plunged. Gou was playing with his hair, making braids with his shorts bangs. Suddenly his gills trembled. He looked up, and Gou grumbled.

 

"I was about to finish..." She said. "Look at you now…it's all messed up..."

 

"Gou, where is Sousuke?"

 

Gou put the coral comb next to her mirror. "Why are you asking, all of a sudden? You haven't talked to him in moons…"

 

"Do you know where he is?" Rin insisted.

 

Gou shook her head. "I don't think he's here. I think the whole group went hunting with his mother. They won't be back here for a while…"

 

Rin put his hands into his hair and shook the loose braids away. "I have to go, right now. Excuse me but we'll keep playing together later."

 

"But where are you going?" Gou swam after her brother who had already left her lap, his frozen tail shaking with excitement. "And why? Why all of a sudden?"

 

"I'll tell you later." He told her roughly.

 

"You always say that. You told me the same for Sousuke. I still don't know why you two are upset."

 

Suddenly Rin's tail stopped trembling, and his eyes melted into something gentle. His gaze set on his only sister; the prince of the Ocean slowly took the princess in his embrace, and kissed her forehead.

 

"I'm sorry. I'll tell you this time. I really want to."

 

"Why not now?"

 

"Because…it's not the right time, you see?" He told her, in all honesty. "And mother will kill me. Sousuke as well, I guess…you have to promise me, if I ever tell you-"

 

"I won't repeat to anyone. Don't worry, I'm not that stupid – who do you think I am, seriously?"

 

"You're my little sister."

 

"Oh shut up! You're impossible."

 

"Rin-sempai! Rin-sempai!" A voice came from behind the two siblings.

 

Rin turned his head and saw a familiar form, a light grey seahorse, no longer than eight centimeters with a light blue crest, his fins moving in every direction. "Momotarou is sending me. He said he brought the...the...you know what with him!"

 

"What?" Gou exclaimed, her face frowning. "What is this silly thing talking about again?"

 

"Later, Gou, later. I promise."

 

Rin left the place and, ignoring the pain running in his flesh—the pain his mother's spell put on him three years earlier for having being touched by a human's skin—he swam alongside with his friend the seahorse, to the place where Momotarou were waiting for them.

 

"Ai, is it really happening? Is the human really here?"

 

"Yes! He came all the way here. I wonder how he can go so deep; no humans were seen here for ages, at least I never heard of one being alive..."

 

And the seahorse didn't lie. He was there indeed, floating, majestically like any other people of the sea, his limbs slightly moving with the rhythm of warm currents, his dark hair waving calmly, bubbles escaping from his mouth. Rin noticed that he did not have gills. How could the human possibly breathe underwater?

 

It wasn't what Rin looked at first, of course. The eyes were still the same. The lips as blue as ever.

 

The mermaid got closer; the human did not move an inch. Rin raised his hands, and his webbed fingers caressed the oval face belonging to the other. And then it was like a wave of something he had never experienced before traveled from the spot that had touched the human to the end of his tail.

 

Blue let its place to white. The human's eyes were rolling into the back of his head. Bubbles stopped coming out of his mouth; it was just like the last time. Rin then did nothing but swim, as fast as he could, with the human's body in his embrace towards the nearest part of land he could find. The human needed earth. That's all what Rin could think. He could not let him die, not after having found him again after all this time.

 

The Prince broke the surface; a sea otter was waiting, apparently, for someone to return. Obviously, it did not expected the person to be Rin.

 

"Land!" Rin yelled at the poor animal. "I need to put him on earth!"

 

"Do you mean his home?" The sea otter said, quite calmly according to Rin, who was panicking with a dead weight on his shoulder.

 

"Whatever!" He shouted. "Lead me the way."

 

With Nitori following them as fast as he could, the three old friends reached the house floating on water as if it had always been there, or ever was supposed to be there. Rin laid the human's body on the wood. With the strength of his arms he weighted his body on the solid ground as well, sitting on his tail just near the human's waist, and just like last time he put his head against the human's chest, waiting to hear the sound of his heart.

 

Nothing.

 

"No." Rin whispered. "No no you can't- there's no blood. You can't leave me now."

 

"What are you talking about? Blood? Is there something to eat?"

 

"What happened?" Rin turned around, and stared harshly at his animal friend still in the water. "Did you break him?"

 

"Broken you said?" Momotarou repeated.

 

"No! We did nothing! We promised!"

 

"Shut up Nitori!" The blazing gaze, bursting flames of rage and grief, fell back on the human corpse. His chest was not moving. How could it have happened so suddenly?

 

"Why..." Rin started to cry. "Why now? Why did you have to stop just before we could have finally met? Why?!"

 

His fist hit the poor human's bare chest, harshly. And hit it again, and again, and as long as Rin's sorrow was too powerful to permit him to use his tail he continued to crush his hand on the other's chest, to make the pain go away, to show how upset he was against someone he did not even know.

 

And then, the human started coughing.

 

Rin wasn't like Sousuke; he didn't know much about humans but he easily guessed that if the human was making noise, then it meant that he wasn't dead anymore. He saw his eyes open again, and the blue scared him for no reason. Rin was about to leave again like a thief in the night; guided by his apprehension he jumped onto the ocean but again, just like last time, the human caught his wrist before he had time to disappear under the surface.

 

The human made some noise that Rin didn't understand.

 

"He wants you to stay." The sea otter said. "He said ' _Don't go_!'"

 

Rin was startled. "What?! But why? I-I- It's forbidden and I-"

 

He got interrupted again by the human. His mouth was moving but Rin could not tell what he was really saying.

 

"He said that he knows who you are." The sea otter translated. "He wants to thank you for saving him. He has been looking for you since that day when his family died and disappeared into the sea, the day you found him and brought him back to the beach. He wants to know you. And..." Momotarou made a pause, his eyes falling back on the human face again. "And you wouldn't have followed Nitori if it wasn't the same for you, would you?"

 

"Is that you or him, who asks me this?" Rin replied.

 

" _Me. It's me._ " The human said, pressing a hand to his chest. Rin didn't know a word of the human's language, but gestures were something he could instinctively understand.

 

" _Me._ " Rin repeated. He took his hand from the water and timidly, he touched the place just where the boy had showed on his chest. _"Me."_ He said again, using human's words for the very first time.

 

"No!" Momo said, exasperate. "It's ' _You_ ' you need to say. _'Me'_ is when you talk about yourself, ' _You'_ is when you talking about the other. Look; _'Me'_ ," the sea otter showed his own self, and then his pawls patted on Rin's shoulder. " _'You'_. Got it?"

 

Rin nodded, slowly, and then his eyes fell back on the boy. His hand was still resting on his chest near his heart.

 

" _Haru._ " He said, his voice soft, " _My name is Haru. Me, Haru. You,_ " His hand moved toward the mermaid. " _Rin._ "

 

" _'Rin'._ "

 

It was the first time that he pronounced his human name, and certainly not the last.

 

Just like Haruka had asked, Rin stayed that day. They talked the whole day until the tiny moons started to appear in the darkened sky.

 

"These aren't moons." Haruka told him before they parted. "The big one," his arms spread wide in front of him, "Big one is the moon; the smallest," Haruka closed the distance and brought his fingers very close to each other, "They are called stars."

 

" _...Stars._ " Rin said, his voice still unsure.

 

Haruka smiled. "You're a quick learner."

 

"How come you can understand what I'm saying?" Rin asked suddenly in his own language. "Momo said you could. Nitori also had the impression that you could hear him speak when you caught him in your net. Where does it come from?"

 

"Don't know." Haru answered, shaking his head. "It has been there since I was born, I guess."

 

Rin frowned, and then looked back at Momo. "He has no idea." The sea otter said.

 

Before Rin had to go he promised Haruka that he would come to see him more often, starting from now. Momotarou would stay there at first of course; only to help them communicate. Rin disappeared from Haruka's view, and the last thing the human saw from his newfound friend was his majestic red tail plunging under the sea. Haruka spread his arm and his fist closed just where the tail was gone.

 

 

 

 

"Gou, come here. I promised I'd tell you about Sousuke, about why I'm always leaving, about why I stopped playing with you lately." Rin started. "I've met someone. I've met a boy. A human boy. Please, don't tell mom, don't tell anymore, not even your best friends. He isn't like the others; he isn't like the ones who killed dad. I promised I'd tell you, and you've promised you wouldn't tell, so now I'm expecting you to fulfill your promise as I have fulfilled mine."

 

* * *

 

**~~ Part Four : The tail. Year 1672~~**

 

* * *

 

**.**

 

"Can I touch your tail?"

 

"No."

 

"Rin, please."

 

 _"Go to Hell._ "

 

There were times when Haruka regretted to have taught Rin so many bad words. The stubborn mermaid liked to use them to piss him off, a lot - too much in Haruka's opinion. It's been six months since their first official meeting. Rin had learned an extraordinary number of words from the human's language, so much that the sea otter didn't even need to be there each time they wanted to meet. And in their case, it was almost every day.

 

Haruka was insatiable of Rin's company, and to him it seemed that the feeling was more than mutual. They were never short of questions, always having something they wanted to learn from each other's species, culture, or, as for that day for example, anatomy.

 

Rin was particularly keen on the young man's toes. That day the human was sitting on the wooden plank and the mermaid was emerged, his pinky fins at the very end of his tail flirted with the surface of water. His fingers were touching the frame of Haruka's toes one by one, following their curves, testing the firmness of his nails. He put one in his mouth. Haruka gasped; he hadn't realized before that Rin's teeth were sharp. But, eventually, he let him do it. He let the mermaid touched him with his rough fingers, in a way no one ever had, in a way he would have never dare to touch anyone. Rin was very curious, he looked like a child playing with a new toy, and his favorite one was Haruka's human body.

 

His hands ended up on the top of Haruka's thigh. The human repressed a shudder, and internally wondered if Rin had any kind of idea of what he was doing. Speaking about it, Haruka had no idea how such trivial things as reproduction worked for mermaids. As far as he had noticed, Rin was half human and half a fish; but it seemed that his human self stopped where his tail started. He didn't even have a belly button.

 

Rin's fingers curled around the hem of Haruka's shorts. The human gasped, and instinctively pulled Rin's hand away.

 

"What?" The mermaid scowled.

 

"It's personal." Haruka replied.

 

" _'Personal?_ '"

 

"Secret. Just for me. Forbidden." Haruka added, until Rin finally got the meaning right. It was getting incredibly easy to talk with him. Just as if the two of them were made to understand each other with very little words.

 

"Why are humans hiding themselves under these things?" Rin wondered aloud, fiddling with Haruka's shorts.

 

"They are called clothes. It's to protect us from...the sun, the wind. Other people's gaze."

 

"You're hiding from your own tribes?"

 

"Things on Lands aren't the same." Haruka said. "Humanity is a conglomerate of little tribes that are fighting together. And even inside tribes people are arguing with each other. It's part of our nature. We are violent. You, you look so calm. The water always seems to be so serene..."

 

Haruka's eyes lingered on the infinite horizon the view from his house gave him. After hearing no reply comingfrom the mermaid's mouth, he had come to the conclusion that again, his talking hadn't quite find a meaning in Rin's mind.

 

"I just," his eyes fell back on Rin's face again, "Really, really envy you."

 

There was something in the way that Rin's hands tightened around his groin candidly, or the way his lips parted with surprise, and in his eyes as well something seemed to have awoken from a long, very long nap. But Haruka chose to ignore it, just like he was ignoring the muffled sound of his own heartbeats, increasing every time he was looking at Rin those days. These things were getting in his way, he could not let them happen.

 

"Can I touch you now?"

 

He didn't even try to hide the hoarseness of his voice, that the sudden burst of arousal the sight of Rin gave him had provoked in him. And just as if Rin had somehow understood where Haruka's mind was travelling behind his calm blue eyes, the mermaid withdrew his hands and his body to the ocean.

 

"I...it's..."

 

"Personal? Is that the word you're looking for?"

 

"Yeah...maybe." Rin pouted, his tail hitting the water behind him, looking away. His red eyes, shy, came back on Haruka soon enough though. "But...not for you. At least not anymore. Come."

 

Rin offered his hand and helped Haruka to get in the water with him. He took the human's hands and put them on both sides of his waist. "Well, that's it I guess."

 

"Is it really that important for you?"

 

"What do you mean by that?" Rin asked.

 

"Your scales. Is there anything...personal about them?"

 

Rin laughed nervously. "Ha, no. Don't worry I'm just, shy, I guess? It's the first time someone other than my own family touches it so...I guess I...it's my pride, okay? No one in the whole Seadom wears the same."

 

"It's okay." There was a weird smile on Haruka's face when he spoke those words. "I'll be gentle."

 

Rin looked away at the blue sky during the whole time Haruka explored each of the mermaid's scale. His fingertips brushed past the smooth surface feverishly, achingly slowly; he took noticed that some at the front just belong the flesh were harsher and damaged.

 

"What happened there?" He asked bluntly. It made Rin blushed. The mermaid acted as if he hadn't understood but Haruka knew he had. And so, the human went on.

 

"How do you reproduce?"

 

The suddenness of the question should have disconcerted Rin, but Haruka had forgotten that a mermaid was more of an animal than he was. There was nothing more natural for a mermaid than to have descendants.

 

"When we come of age, we can produce small eggs. When we are near another mermaid we excrete them out of our body and they go inside a female. Then the female mermaid excretes bigger eggs, and we hide them in large band of sands, hoping that no one would find them or eat them. How about humans? Is that the same for you as well?"

 

"More or less." Haruka said, his fingers still lost on Rin's tail. "Could you give me one?"

 

Rin frowned. "Are you crazy? I can't steal an egg for you. You won't be able to make it survive anyway, it needs a lot of water and-"

 

"I was talking about your scales." Haruka cut him. Rin's eyes widened; he tried to get away from Haruka's grip but the human forbade him to get away. "I want one."

 

"...You..."

 

Haruka waited for an answered, but Rin never gave him one. He remained silent for the rest of the evening, and left sooner than he had had in the past six month.

 

Maybe he had asked too soon, Haruka thought, and hoped his boldness hadn't destroyed what he had tried to build in years.

 

 

 

When Rin got back to his home, the whole royal family was reunited around a buffet made of seaweeds and small fishes. Gou was at the very center of attention. In her tiny hands was resting a bright and unique coral scale.

 

"Isn't it fantastic?!" Their mother exclaimed. "Our little Gou is getting courted!"

 

What you have to know is that the mermaid's traditions aren't that different from ours, if you look at it with a certain angle. Just like in ancient times, a male mermaid has to give something precious to the female he wants to spend his lifetime with. And it happens that, the most precious thing for a mermaid is its tail. Giving a scale is what we could call an act of 'Love', but as we will see a little bit further in the story, love isn't a concept that mermaid understand wholly. At least, for the most of them.

 

Gou got married within the year - a mermaid marriage, of course, which has very little to do with our kind of marriage. She had to wait another year to be of age and to pound eggs. She gave birth to at least eight other mermaids. Half of them died before they were two years old. The ocean, contrary to what Haruka thought, is not a serene place. Mermaids are clever and wise, but they do not have a shark's powerful jaw, or the ability to hide in the sand like some fishes and mollusks. Despite their different alliances mermaids are a very vulnerable creatures living deep under the sea. To them, love is a feeling only shared within the same family, and reproduction is just a task, a duty everyone has to do for the sake of their civilization.

 

But again, Rin was not a usual mermaid. He was the most human among them, and Haruka was the most mermaid of the human race; and it's probably why they couldn't help but fall in love.

 

 

"You can have one."

 

"…?"

 

Haruka could not believe what he had just heard. Was Rin really...giving him...

 

"One scale. You can pick one, the one you like best. Just be quick because it hu-"

 

"Haru!" A voice came from behind the house. "Haru, where are you? Help me with the supplies."

 

"Who's that?" Rin asked, "Another human?"

 

"It's Makoto." Haruka told him. "It's a friend."

 

" _'Friend?'_ "

 

"Someone who's close to you." Haruka explained.

 

"But he's far from you. He comes from the lands, I can see his boat from here."

 

"Not close in that sense...How could I...Momotarou and Nitori are friends. You and Sousuke are friends."

 

"You and me are friends." Rin added.

 

"No, not quite." Haruka said; it made Rin's head straightened on his neck.

 

"Then what are we?"

 

Haruka stood up to meet with Makoto and mumbled, before going, "I'm not quite sure yet. Stay underwater and wait for me to come back. It won't be long."

 

Rin did as he was told, but the other human stayed much longer than Haruka had expected. Makoto asked for a cup of tea, and it's well known that time went by quickly when two friends are reunited.

 

"How are Ren and Ran doing?"

 

"Fine!" Makoto answered. "Ran is working on the market place with mom. Ren is more interested in dad's work, which is not that surprising. Speaking of which, Rainbow Bread was looking for you."

 

"Really?" Haruka said, unaffected.

 

"Yeah. He wanted to know how things were doing. If you were close to achieving your goal. A goal he knows about, and not me, your best friend, for what it's worth..."

 

"Makoto..."

 

"I'm not, you know I just...I'm worried about you. Rainbow Bread is a pirate, it's because of them that your parents are dead. I just don't quite understand how you can...trust them."

 

"I don't have the choice."

 

"Haru, you always have the choice." Makoto said, his voice serious. "People are talking about you, you know? There are rumors-"

 

"Let them be."

 

"Rumors that you've been enchanted, and that you've fallen for a siren's song." Makoto went on. "It's only a myth, what you've heard about; it's not true!"

 

"It's none of your business."

 

"Haru, I have to ask you...Have you...Are you in love with it?"

 

"Don't call him that!" Haruka groaned.

 

"But it's not human!" Makoto retorted. "Goro knows some people who've been just the same as you and they're all-"

 

"Ah, I see now. It's Goro who put those idea in your head. He turned you against me."

 

"No, not at all. Can't you see that I'm just thinking about your own safety? I don't want you to get harmed. Are you really so blinded by your own desire that you can't distinguish good from evil, Haru?"

 

Haruka stood up and took away both of their empty cups. He did not want to waste his precious time to reply to this ultimate provocation, coming from the person he thought he could trust the most. The sting wounded him more than he thought it would, but wasn't serious enough to make him drop his plans, not when he was so close to succeeding.

 

"Tell Rainbow Bread not to worry about me." He said coldly. "I'll see him soon. Now, leave."

 

"Haru, I-"

 

"Leave!" Haru shouted.

 

The tall man's limbs froze in stupor. "Fine." Makoto said, his voice shaking from emotion and grief, to have fought for the first time with his very best friend. He left the room soundlessly, sailed on his craft, and reached terra firma before the sun hit the horizon.

 

 

"...You okay?" Rin asked, having waited a moment after the silent had fallen on Haruka's house.

 

Haruka walked slowly towards the ocean. He sat just next to Rin, his calves plunging into water. "It'll be fine." He lied, "You don't have to worry about anything."

 

"But you were talking about me, weren't you?"

 

Haruka's eyes widened. "Did you understand what we were talking about?" He asked the mermaid.

 

"Not everything," He replied, "But I got some words. Your friends said _'not'_ and _'human'_ in the same sentence. So I guess he was talking about me."

 

Haruka looked at the red tail, raisingng in the air majestically and falling slowly on water with a regular movement. "We did talk a little bit about you. But mostly about me. Makoto knows you're here."

 

" _Do you love me then?_ "

 

Haruka's gaze stilled on the gleaming surface; the sun was about to disappear, and to let its place to the deep blue sky enlightened by the countless stars. His hand mechanically looked for something to hold on to, and ended up in Rin's hair. He caressed his skull, refusing to look stare at him, refusing the words he spoke. "Maybe. I don't really know."

 

"What does it mean?"

 

"Excuse me?"

 

" _Love._ " Rin repeated, and he leaned on Haruka's touch. "I can't find an equivalent. But after hearing you shouting at your friend, I guess it must be a bad thing."

 

"It's...not always." Haruka said, unsure of what to add. "But sometimes it can be bad. When you choose to love the wrong person."

 

"How do you choose then?"

 

"You don't."

 

His thumb ran across Rin's cheekbone. Time passed like the speed of light, with just the two of them staring directly at each other in such a comfortable silence that it made Haruka wonder if he really knew what he was doing.

 

"To love someone is when you care for another person, more than yourself. It's when you're willing to give that other person more than what you've got just to make them happy. It's when that person’s happiness is more important than yours. Do you have someone like that already?" Haruka asked near the end of their meeting.

 

"Yes, I think I do." Rin answered with a smile on his face. Haruka smiled as well, but for some reason it failed to reach his eyes.

 

 

"Before I go, please choose one." Rin put his tail on the floor, and waited for Haruka to pick the one he wanted. The human traced the lines of the different scales, the slimy surface harsher on some parts.

 

"You never told me what happened to them." Haruka said, as a finger lingered on the front of Rin's tail. "Why are they damaged here? I thought you were very proud of your tail; you're not the type to neglect it."

 

"...I burned it. The day I saved you." Haruka looked up to Rin, who was blushing crimson. "I had to put you on the sand entirely. I stayed too much time out of water. That's when I got the burns."

 

"Then, I'll take a burned one."

 

"What?!" Rin gasped. "But it does not make sense. Take a pretty one."

 

"No."

 

"But I can't give you something damaged. It's...It's not-"

 

"You know, before I met you I was sailing with a man who only longed for what he finds beautiful." Haruka started, his finger firmly holding the burned scale he'd definitely chosen. "We often argued about what we found interesting enough because, to him, what the treasure really meant, its values, history, none of it mattered. This scale is not the prettiest but it has more values, because of what it meant."

 

"Haru, I don't get you. I should call Momo he'll-"

 

"No, there's no need to. I know what I want. Come here."

 

Reluctantly Rin climbed up to the house and sat just next to Haruka. One of his hands was on Rin's face, the other on the scale. "It's not going to hurt, I promise." He said softly, his lips getting closer and closer to the mermaid's and then, Haruka kissed him, softly, and waited for Rin to get less tense to tear off the scale from its tail. Rin cried and bit on Haruka's lips, and so he kept on kissing him tenderly until the pain was long gone. He didn't know how much time they had spent kissing after that. When he opened his eyes Haruka's mind was blurred, certainly by the lack of oxygen, he thought.

 

"What was that?" Rin asked with a tired voice.

 

"It's called kissing. It's something you do with someone you love."

 

" _You love me_ , then? Because you've-"

 

Haruka kissed him again, not giving him the opportunity to speak; and he cursed internally to not have thought carefully before speaking. He got what he craved, after all these years of work and patience; he could not ruin it all just because of some communication problem.

 

"Yes, I do." He said. "Of course I do."

 

Rin giggled. "It makes me happy."

 

"Why?"

 

"I don't really know. Does it matter?"

 

Haruka thought about it, for a second or two. "I don't think it does." He replied. And then, Rin’s melodic laugh filled his ears, his mind, his heart; Rin pulled him into his embrace, he the mermaid who didn't even know what hugging was before, and all of the things he made Haruka feel pierced his heart, and made him bleed inside.

 

"I do love you." Rin said. "I do love you a lot!" He kissed Haruka's lips, tons and tons of times, and each ones of his pecks destroyed an imperceptible something inside the human's heart.

 

They parted in the night. Rin's tail had turned purple. The scale he had given, resting between Haruka's thumb and forefinger, weighted more than a disk of lead. His kisses had left a bitter taste on his lips. He hoped, from the bottom of his heart, that Rin had fallen for his little lie - or what Haruka thought was a lie, because he wasn't the only one not really knowing what true love felt like, at that moment of the story.

 

 

Unfortunately for the both of them, he understood only when it was too late.

 

 

Back in the depths of the ocean, Gou was waiting for her brother to come back from his daily trip to the human's world.

 

"You're late again, big brother." She corrected him as soon as she saw his jolly silhouette swimming towards her. "I won't have any excuses for mom next time, you should think about it."

 

"Thank you. You're really saving my neck." He told her, and then pulled her into a hug.

 

"Big brother! What are you-" But before Gou had time to protest, Rin kissed her fully on the lips.

 

"It's called _'kissing.'_ " Some bubbles escaped the mermaid's mouth as he spoke in human's language under water. "It's something you do with someone you _Love._ "

 

Gou frowned, but immediately forgot her perplexity in front of her brother's brilliant smile. It was back on his face, the very same smile she remembered from when she was little. She didn't even noticed that one of his scales was gone.

 

But Sousuke did.

 

 

As Rin left Gou to look for his mother, he saw on the sand a large shadow following him. Thinking that it was a predator, the Prince of the ocean started to swim faster, then disappeared inside a rock shell where the wide animal certainly would not fit, not even one of his fins. Unfortunately the predator was not there to play, and his tail hit on the rock. Rin's hiding place collapsed. And that's only when that he realized he had been chased by Sousuke's true form.

 

"...It's you." Rin groaned. "What are you doing here, and with that shape? You scared me to death."

 

"That was maybe the purpose, don't you think?"

 

Sousuke came back to his baby form, so that they could speak more easily now that he was sure he had Rin's full attention.

 

"I saw your tail. You're lacking one of your scales. Don't tell me you gave the human one."

 

"He asked for it."

 

"And?" Sousuke attacked. "It's not because he asks that you have to give. Plus, I'm sure he doesn't even know what it means."

 

"I'm sure he doesn't. He isn't a mermaid after all." Rin told him, his finger carelessly caressing the place where the scale was gone. "But it does not matter. I wanted him to have one."

 

"But you know what people will think when they see this, don't you? They'll think you're after someone. No one would want to get united with you." Sousuke sighed when he saw Rin wasn't even listening. "I'm just worried for you. Since you've met that boy you keep on living a dangerous life. You're making a mistake, you're bold, you're impossible to follow."

 

"Do you know what _love_ is, Sousuke?" Rin asked his friend.

 

"What are you talking about? Is that another one of your human's words?"

 

"Precisely. That's why you can't understand."

 

Rin turned his back, he was about to leave the place and the argument as it was but Sousuke swam after him. "But Rin, you're not a human!" He shouted. "Humans are evil. They kill our people. They killed your father."

 

"And you eat humans. It's the circle of life." Rin said, with his back still facing the baby whale shark. "They are just like us, a tribe that is trying to survive."

 

"No they're not. They're savage and violent. They only have bad intentions. Your human isn't different from the others, and thinking that he is will be your biggest mistake."

 

"I won't let you insult him!" Rin yelled, and bared his teeth. He tried to catch the small shark, but his skin was silky and Sousuke easily avoided Rin's grip. And in the rush of the action, without really thinking - his instinct probably took over while fighting - Sousuke did something terrible.

 

 

The following morning, Haruka woke up to the sound of the water lapping outside his house. Rin was there, his shoulder covered in blood. Immediately Haruka ran towards him, his eyes panicked looking for other wounds, but this was the only one.

 

"You were right," Rin sobbed, " _Love_ can be bad when people don't understand it."

 

"Who did that to you?' Haruka asked, his lips kissing the salty tears falling from the red eyes.

 

"...No one. It's okay I just...I just wanted to see you."

 

Haruka watched the circular wound on Rin's shoulder; he could even feel the ache spreading in his body starting from his own shoulder. He dropped a kiss there, to make the pain go away and then, washed the blood, put some rhum and took a yarn to make stitches Rin whined at the pain, and Haruka swallowed, his throat dry. His fingers were soaked with the mermaid's blood.

 

"Does it hurt still?" He asked after the stitches were done, and the needle settled down on the floor.

 

"Yeah. But at least I'm not bleeding. Sharks won't chase after me."

 

"You won't tell me what happened?"

 

"No," Rin answered directly. " _It's personal._ "

 

It made Haruka smiled, and it took him time to realize as for why he did so.

 

"I have to go now. My mother is going to be very worried if I don't return home right now. I have swum the whole night because I was...upset, I'd say." Rin told him.

 

"You don't have to explain. Everyone has his own secrets." Haruka said as he stood up. "When will I see you again?"

 

"Don't really know. I have to heal but...Haru, can we...before I go..."

 

Rin caught Haruka's ankle with his webbed hand. His torso got closer to the wooden floor, his arms set near Haruka's feet. His lips pushed forward, and he kissed the toes there. Haruka knelt.

 

"You want to kiss me?"

 

The mermaid nodded. Haruka leaned in. He kissed him softly at first, but he could feel that there was something urgent on Rin's side. The mermaid pushed harder, his lips parted slightly and Haruka's tongue moved on its own. It filled Rin's mouth and found its twin, fought against it, ran past the sharp teeth. His hands got lost in the flaming hair, his fingers crushing on Rin's skull and pushing him harder against his own face. When they finally broke the kiss both of their faces were red, and Haruka was breathless.

 

"I think I just lay my eggs." Rin murmured, almost embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it was not supposed to happen this early."

 

"It's okay," Haruka kissed him on the lips again. "It's okay."

 

"I love you Haru." Rin breathed against his lips, and then he kissed him passionately as if he really knew the true and pure meaning behind those words. "I'm going to miss you, so much. If only you could come with me. If only you were the same as me."

 

They only stopped kissing when their lips started to feel numb. Rin left when the sky lost its golden colors. Haruka held on to the scale he had been given. He did not catch sight of the mermaid it belonged to until six months later.

 

 

* * *

 

**~~ Last Part : Revelations. Years 1673 ~~**

 

* * *

 

**.**

 

Haruka woke up, his eyes swollen, his mouth tasting of iron again. His stomach was still hurting him, his throat was burning; the young man had been sick since the day Rin last appeared in front of him, wounded and vulnerable.

 

What if something had happened to him?

 

The idea kept him awake at night, or so he thought it was the reason. Whatever Makoto told him he refused to see a doctor, or to come back to live on the lands. 'What if he comes back?' He had said, to dissuade his friend from bringing him back by force. But Rin, after six months of absence, never came back.

 

Haruka got on his feet and threw up in a small basin. He would not be able to continue like this. He knew it. If only he could escape. If only he could just jump into water and disappear...he's sure he would feel better, under the surface.

 

That day, particularly, Haruka was feeling a little bit better than the last few days. His head was hurting him less. His limbs would walk a lot more than usual without being tired. But his ears kept hearing voices, mostly Rin's saying his name, asking for him, his tail hitting the water.

 

"Haru!" Someone called him. It was Rin's voice; it couldn't be real.

 

Haruka rolled onto his side and eyed the entrance. The door was opened, and from where he was lying he could see that Makoto's boat wasn't moored.

 

"Haru!" The voice yelled, "Are you okay, Haru?"

 

Haruka heard the sound of someone jumping on the wooden floor. Seconds later he felt drops of fresh water hitting his face. And then, his world turned red.

 

"Haru," Rin said more softly, "What happened to you?"

 

It was not an hallucination, but still it took Haruka some time to realize that what he was seeing was indeed something real. The harshness of Rin's skin under his fingers was not something he could mistake for another, as for the unique shade of his red eyes.

 

"Rin..." He murmured, his words were weak just as the rest of his body. Haruka was tired. He was tired of being trapped in a human's body. He needed a tail, he desperately needed one. "What happened? How is your shoulder?"

 

"Oh, fine, it's fine thanks to you. I...I'm sorry, I got caught." The mermaid said, dropping his gaze to the floor. "In fact, Gou let it-"

 

"You'll tell me later." Haruka interrupted. "You need to go back to water. You'll damage your scales if you stay here. Take me to water with you."

 

The truth was, that after Rin had kissed Gou the first time, the Prince's sister decided to do the same with her mother. Of course, the human's traditions weren't unknown to the Queen of the Oceans. Unable to pretend any longer Gou had to tell the truth, and that's how Rin's little secret was discovered and his freedom definitely suspended, until the human in question died. Mermaids could live hundreds of years, unlike humans, so Rin did not received the capital punishment but still, he was bound to stay in his room for at least a couple of decades, in human's time, which did not please him in the least.

 

"It made me crazy. I wanted to swim. I wanted to see you. I couldn't...I couldn't stay there. I escaped." Rin told him when they were both in the ocean, the water reaching their waists. "I know that what I did was wrong but, Haru you're unique, you're not the same as other humans. I want to show them. Come with me. Come to my home."

 

Haruka's eyes, caught by surprise, quickly fell on Rin's, burning with hope and something else. "Now?"

 

"Why not? And any other time will be too late." Rin added. "It won't be long before they find me gone. It's now or never, Haru. Do you want to go with me?"

 

Haruka's clenched his fist. His gaze became hesitant, and ended up on the water, avoiding Rin's insisting demand.

 

"Is it because you're not feeling well?" The mermaid asked. "You look pale. What happened to you?"

 

"I don't know." Haruka lied. In fact he really did not know what was happening inside his body; the overdose of mercury in his blood since he'd tasted Rin's was and stayed a complete mystery to him. But deep inside his heart he had felt that something was wrong, and it only got worst when Rin had stopped showing up to his doorstep. The link was not a difficult one to make, at that time. But Haruka wasn't lovesick. It was just another misunderstanding adding to the other ones, and which lead him to the impossible situation they were both in.

 

"Then, I beg you, come. If you come with me, Haru, I swear, I swear to you that I'll show you a sight you've never seen before."

 

And then, Rin started to enumerate the wonders lingering in the depth of the ocean. He described how his home was, the fishes, the plants, the minerals. He explained to him how wonderful other species were, and how he really thought that Haruka could certainly speak with them as well.

 

The sparkles from his red eyes found an echo in Haruka's. The blue started to shine as well. The human swallowed. This was the life he had longed for, since the day he was born.

 

"Fine." He surrendered. "But I...I need to...give you something before that. A gift."

 

" _A gift?_ "

 

"A present. Like the scale you gave me. Just wait here and..." Haruka paused, took a deep breath. "Turned around. I want it to be a surprise."

 

The mermaid nodded enthusiastically and did as he was told. Rin turned his back to Haruka, and the human was then free to go back to his room and to look for what he had kept hidden from the past few years in the back of his cupboard.

 

As he took the large harpoon out of its place, Rainbow Bread's words echoed in his head.

 

 

 

"First, you have to get a scale." The Captain had said. "Scales are mermaids' biggest pride, so it'll be very difficult to get one, especially since the mermaid needs to _give_ it to you, as a proof of faith. Then, and only then, when the mermaid trusts you like no other living beings in this world, on lands or in water, you have to kill it. Kill the mermaid and drink its blood. Only then, you can take its place. Only then you can become a mermaid yourself. This is the only way."

 

Haruka had drank his glass of rum and took the old harpoon the Captain was handing to him. "Fine. It shouldn't be difficult then." He had said.

 

 

 

He remembered that time clearly. He was now holding the harpoon with the very same hand. He did not remember the object of death to weight this heavy the first time.

 

Rin's pearly back was just at an arm’s shot. He could just throw the weapon and kill him, in a matter of seconds, and then after drinking his blood he could join the people of the sea and become the person he had always longed to be. It was just as he had said, years ago, to Rainbow Bread. It could be so easy.

 

And yet his arm refused to move.

 

At first it seemed to him that killing Rin was just unfair. The mermaid had been so good to him, ending his life just to become one just like him didn't seem like a good way to thank him. And who else would guide him if he killed the only person he knew living under the sea? Maybe he could ask Nitori or the sea Otter but...Haruka wanted Rin. He wanted to be with him, together, every day of every week. Being transformed into a mermaid without Rin...all of this sounded pointless, all of a sudden. There was no place Haruka wanted to go if it was not filled with Rin smiling.

 

That's when he remembered what he told Rin, so long ago in his memory. Rin's happiness had become more important than his own.

 

"So, what is it? Can I look now?"

 

Rin turned, his hands hiding the sight from his innocent eyes. He was smiling from ear to ear. He was still thinking that Haruka had always been honest with him, that he hadn't used him to reach his evil goal, that from the very start he had planned to get rid of him like a coward. The thought was too much for him. Haruka got on all fours and threw up on the floor.

 

"Haru!!"

 

Rin swam towards him, and he saw the harpoon lying on the floor.

 

"Haru...what...what is happening?"

 

"I told you I would give you something."

 

Haruka took the harpoon again, he raised it over his head; Rin disappeared under the water in fear. He broke the surface again when he heard a cry of pain, coming from the human's mouth.

 

Haruka had cut off his little finger from the right hand, blood spread out of the fresh wound.

 

"Haru!! What-How-What had bitten you all of a sudden?"

 

"You gave me a scale. You've torn a part of your body just because I asked for it." Haruka said to justify his desperate act. "It was only fair that I do the same. Now, take me to your home." He added, with a tired smile enlightening his tired face. "I really want to see that sight you've talked about."

 

"Haru..."

 

Rin burst into tears, and hugged the human close to his chest. He kissed his head, his cheeks, his lips. They waited a few minutes for the wound to stop bleeding, but it never seemed to stop.

 

 

"We should hurry. I don't want Sousuke's mother to have time to smell your blood."

 

 

 

Haruka jumped, and Rin took his hand. With their fingers entwined Rin lead him, always deeper, revealing the secrets and treasures of his tribe. He turned his head back to him from time to time, to see if Haruka was okay. Each time the human smiled.

 

The last time Rin turned his head, he saw a large shadow behind him, following them, chasing them.

 

"Oh, no. Haru we need to hide, and quickly."

 

Bubbles escaped from the human's mouth but Rin's head was already turned somewhere else. His eyes were frantically looking for safe place where Haruka could stay unharmed. There were at least five sharks after them. With a little bit of luck, people at his home must have noticed his breakout, and were already looking for him. Sousuke and his family would be able to get rid of those sharks in the blink of an eye. All he had to do was wait.

 

"It's going to be okay." He told Haru. "I'll protect you from their teeth."

 

Haruka never replied.

 

 

A few minutes later, Rin dared to give a look at the scenery again. There were no traces of sharks, not even a shadow in sight. Only small fishes were swimming around them. Rin reached Haruka again, and took his hand in his.

 

"I think it's okay now. Plus, your wound had already stopped bleeding. Come on now, I'll show you the...Haru...?"

 

Haruka's body was floating majestically in the water, unmoving. His eyes were closed.

 

"Hey, Haru. Are you feeling alright?"

 

The human stayed silent.

 

"Ha-Haru...Haru wake up." Rin shook him by the shoulder. "We don't have time for that. I need to show you my home."

 

His lips were purple, the skin of his remaining fingers as well.

 

"Haru...Haru please...not now please...you can't do this to me..." Rin breathed, caressing the human's stoic face before he was interrupted by all of his friends and family coming from him.

 

It was too late. Haruka was dead.

 

 

 

 

From all around the world, mermaids and creatures were gathering to support and show their sympathy to the royal family. The Queen had ordered a mermaid's funeral at the request of her disconsolate son. Gou watched with her husband as hundreds of strangers filled their coral shells, people that will only stay a day or two to look good in the Queen's eyes, before leaving and forgetting about the tragedy that had just occurred.

 

"I'm going to check on him." She told Seijuro. The large mermaid nodded, and let go of her hand.

 

Gou swam a little bit farther to a place only known by a few people, where the human body was peacefully resting. There, she found her brother, his body covering the corpse; he was still crying for his love. The guilt and grief did not seem to go away, no matter how many tears he wasted.

 

"Rin...You should come with us, just a little."

 

He didn't answer. Rin continued to cry with his face buried in the crook of Haruka's cold neck. Gou stayed there for a few minutes until she found the sight of her brother, so strong and proud in the past, being broken and desperate, too much to bear. Before going nonetheless she cast a last look to the human frame, towards his legs more precisely - being a curious mermaid as well. That's when she saw it.

 

"He still has your scale." She said, her tone surprise. "Look, it's locked between his fingers."

 

"I know. I've tried to take it out the first day, but it wouldn't move." Rin sobbed. "And then I remembered that maybe he would want to keep it with him. He wanted to live with us. He was a creature of the sea just like us. He was just born in the wrong body."

 

His words lingered in Gou's mind. She held her hand to her tail, and then without any kind of warning, she tore one of them.

 

"Ouch!"

 

"Gou!! What the hell-"

 

"Here." She said, and put the scale on one of Haruka's leg. "That way he'll be a little bit more like a mermaid, don't you think?"

 

"Gou...I...I don't know what to say..."

 

The younger sister smiled, "Then maybe, just say 'Thank you.'"

 

"It's not enough." Rin's voice crackled, he started to cry again. "He would have been so happy. I won't be able to thank you enough for that."

 

"You won't need to." A low voice said just behind them.

 

The two siblings turned around. Their whole guests were behind them, with Gou's husband leading them towards the place where the human was. One by one, each mermaid took a scale from their tail and placed it on Haruka's body, until finally the human's legs were replaced by a multicolored tail.

 

Touched by so much devotion and by the pain her son was going through, the Queen decided to transform the boy who had wished all his life to live in the Ocean into a real mermaid. She brandished her trident in front of the whole assembly, and a few seconds later everyone could see three small lines coming up on the human's neck.

 

"Unfortunately my child, my powers aren't powerful enough to bring people back from the dead." She told her son, still crying from joy and bitterness over his lover's body. "But at least, your friend's soul will rest in the body he had longed for all his life."

 

Rin hadn't asked for more.

 

 

 

Haruka's body was put in a giant seashell, surrounding by seaweeds, corals and pearls. Rin went to see him everyday, and he probably still does. Since the day of his death, Rin's eyes have never stopped crying, and with time the salt from his tears had travelled throughout the world, and had filled every drops of water in the seas and oceans. There was no limit to the infinite pain the Prince felt after the loss of the person who taught him what love truly meant.

 

Nowadays with our developed technology, scientist can still ear the Prince's laments, high ultra sounds travelling in the oceans, reminding the whole sea world of the tragedy that had occurred, and of his broken heart.

 

 

 

As for us, as for why and how the truth had kept on after Haruka's death, we have to come back to the lands in 1673 with Makoto and his friends.

 

Makoto had become a fisherman just like his father. One day as he came back to Haruka's empty room to see if his friend was back, he met a very different kind of host.

 

There was a sea otter was eating peaches in the middle of his old friend's room.

 

The sea otter told them the whole story; he told them the truth and believe it or not, there was a man with Makoto that day who understood it all.

 

His name was Rei, and he used to wear the eccentric name of Rainbow Bread.

 

Caught by the feeling of guilt, for having said something but the truth to a poor and desperate man, Rainbow Bread forever let his beautiful hat behind him and with the help of Makoto and Nagisa, the two friends Haruka had his whole life, they began to write the story of their lost regretted friend, lost between two worlds, and tortured by a love that was impossible but inevitable at the same time.

 

They chose the title, and sealed the book. They put it into a box and threw it into the sea, just next to where Haruka's house was, and still is; and that's how, my friend, the truth stayed alive for all those years.

 

 

They are a lot of lessons to remember from this story. You can choose whichever you want, but I'll leave you with the one that struck me the most.

 

 

You can never choose the one you'll fall for.

 

 

 

 

 

**~~ La Petite Sirène - The End ~~**

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was:  
> "So there is this story of mermaids who fall in love with sailors/fisherman and then drown them by accident because they want to show them their home. "
> 
> This is not exactly what I did I guess but I hope the feels were there.
> 
> Merry Christmas everyone :)


End file.
